Combined Unit Plan Assessment and Evaluation - 2007

Unit Name: Earth Surface Formation
Author: Malinda
Evaluator: Jay

Unit Plan Score: 23.5/25 SOE Criteria: One criteria scored less than 3

Overall, lesson sequence, variety of activities, use of technology, and collection of teaching resources was very impressive. - fogleman Dec 13, 2007

This assessment is a combination of three different forms. The first is meant to provide feedback on the degree that the unit plan has incorporated the main ideas about science teaching stressed in EDC 430 this semester. The second is the URI School of Education Rubric that is used across all the teaching methods courses to make sure that the Rhode Island Beginning Teacher Standards (RIBTs) are being addressed. The third component is a summary of my feedback for each of your unit plan components. NOTE: All criteria on the SOE Rubric must score a 3 or above in order for you to begin student teaching. Please feel free to revise your unit plan based on this feedback, and send me an email explaining your revisions.

Completeness and Organization

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
1. Is the unit plan organized in a way that makes sense?	01/(01)
2. Are all the components present? (e.g. Purpose, Concept Map or Outline, 10 Day Lesson Sequence, 3 Long Lessons, Rationale citing how students learn, Assessment strategy.)	11/(12)	Some lessons too brief.
3. Is the writing clear, engaging, proofread, formatted, etc.	01/(01)	Some word errors, e.g. affect/effect.

Content

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
4. Are the standards unpacked to indicate subtopics? Student preconceptions?	02/(02)
5. Does each lesson include learning performances, i.e. statements about what students will be able to do at the end of the lesson?	01/(02)	Some objectives are procedural statements
6. Do the plans have students doing something every day? Do students experience phenomena related to the topic?	02/(02)
7. Do laboratory activities include sufficient time/instruction for students to do/learn about science practices?	01/(01)

Assessment

Criteria	Points/Possible	Comments
8. Do the long lesson plans include questions that allow for formative assessment?	02/(02
9. Are students assessed at a variety of cognitive levels?	02/(02)

Overall impression

10. What will students love (or at least enjoy) about this unit? Students will enjoy variety of activities, use of smartboard, labs.

11. What might be added to make this unit more engaging? Be sure to explain the purpose and goal of each day's activities.

---

---

SOE Unit Plan Rubric

---

Score: 5. Evidence/ Comments:

GSEs are cited explicitly in unpacking of learning goals. Unit's alignment to school's schedule explained as well.

---

Score: 4. Evidence/ Comments:

GSEs addressed throughout lesson sequence.

---

Score: 5. Evidence/ Comments:

Lessons include a variety of phenomena and representations. Questions tie activities to students' prior experiences and interests.

---

Score: 5. Evidence/ Comments:

Lessons include a variety of phenomena and representations. Questions tie activities to students' prior experiences and interests.

---

Score: 5. Evidence/Comments:

Lessons explicitly ask students about prior knowledge as well as make connections between days.

---

Score: 4. Evidence/Comments:

Unit was designed to take into account different learning styles (rationale) and a variety of learning experiences are called for in the lessons.

---

Score: 5 Evidence/Comments:

Lessons provide access to phenomena, as well as a variety of information technologies, including using classroom laptops, smartboards, as well as library-based computers.

---

Score 5. Evidence/Comments:

A comprehensive collection of teaching resources accompanied each lesson.

---

Score 5: Evidence/Comments

Students are asked to engage in inquiry and critical thinking throughout the unit.

---

Score: 5. Evidence/Comments:

A variety of assessments, both formative and summative, are called for. Supporting resources are included in the unit.

---

Score 4: Evidence/Comments:

Unit contains some misspellings and improper word usage.

---

Name: Malinda
Unit Topic: Plate Tectonics
Grade:

---

Detailed Feedback:

Purpose

• Fix spelling and grammar errors. (e.g. "A variety of strategies is used..." doesn't sound right.
• Clarify that you are dealing with Rhode Island GSEs.
• Your purpose sounds like you are just trying to state all the buzzwords in education... can you provide an example from your unit of some of these features?

Learning Goals

• Goals are stated as GSEs and unpacked, followed by learning performances that I asume will be addressed in lessons.

Concept map

• A graphical representation of the questions and learning performances is included. Map is not broken down to the concept level.

Lesson Sequence

L01 - What Causes Earthquakes?

• Overview
  • Good overview of activity.
  • Corrections: U tube; lab tops. Proofread
• Learning Performances
  • What will students be able to do that serves as evidence of understanding. For example, will they Research earthquakes online to answer questions generated by the class?
• Introducing Lesson
  • Confirm before hand that YouTube is not blocked in your school.
  • Shouldn't you say something to introduce the unit at some point? What are learning goals for unit and for this day?
• Instructional Activities.
  • Nice use of KWL. Are students familiar with this? If not, should you explain what KWL means, (along with importance of questions in science)
  • When you have them work with the computers, you might want to state ground/rules or expectations:

You only want to see them on the usgs site.

• Computers are to be handled and re-stored properly.
• Pairs should include one (?) Recorder and one presenter?
• You may want to think of a way to get them to the usgs site quickly, e.g. maybe make a wikispace of your own and create a page with links you are using in class.
• Concluding the Lesson
  • Be sure to allow time for computers to be re-stowed and plugged in.
  • Check this because if computers are dead after one class, your lesson is kaput for the rest of the day.
• Assessment
  • Good use of KWL

L02 Plotting Earthquakes

• Overview - omitted
• Objectives - fine
• Instructional Sequence
  • Edit for word choice ("affects" as noun) get rid of italics.
  • This section should be revised, with each instructional step explained and with your actions sub-bullets so that it is more usable.
  • Is there really a need for all the students to look up the same earth quake map? Could they call up maps from different days? What happens if there has been not earthquake activity over the last 24 hours?
• If the laptops live in your classroom, why not have students find different articles on the discover magazine website by searching for "earthquakes," and having them report on what their article has to do with earthquakes.

*Conclusion

• What will you ask during this discussion.
• Note: You should use our lesson format, even for brief lesson plans so that you can eventually fill them in.

L03 - What is Plate Tectonics?

• Overview - missing
• Objectives
  • Both of these objectives call for students to define terms. Why can this be done in a homework assignment. What do you expect them to be able to do with what they learn during this lesson?
• Instructional Sequence
  • I'm not sure your opening questions will generate their curiosity, since the terms you're asking about seem made up and arbitrary.
• You should cite your sources for the articles
• Once students read the article and complete the worksheet, will they share their answers? How will you assess their work?
• Conclusion - None
• Assessment - None

Note: Personally, I do not find this type of activity, Ss reading and completing a worksheet in class, very engaging. I would say that doing this more often then once in two weeks is too much.

L04 - Making Clay Models

• Overview - fine
• Objectives - rearrange in bulleted statements, but otherwise fine.
  • Your wording seems to imply that the goal are class definitions, but I would think that it would be more valuable to have students be able to apply the four models in some way.
• Materials - Check with art teacher about borrowing modeling clay. (Art clay will not dry out.)
• Introducing Lesson - will you also let them know the obective for the day and their goal?
• Instructional activities - good.
• Concluding the lesson.
  • Why not take a digital picture of the four "class" models paste them into a Word document, and give them out the next day so that students will have them in their notes?

L05 - Animations (Note: You should fix title!)

• Overview - Missing
• Objectives - Fine. Correction: Change "affects" to "effects."
• Introducing lesson - Missing
  • This is a neat lesson. Will you give students an idea of what their goal will be?
• Can you give students copies of the smartboard results to use in their notes? Will you ask questions on your test related to this activity?
• In your third activity, the class discussion, you open with yes/no questions. Do you think more divergent questions will be more effective at starting the conversation?
• Assessment - Missing

L06 - What is Pangaea?

• The writeup of this lesson seems rushed, not as carefully explained as earlier lessons.
• Please reformat lesson.
• Overview - None
• Objectives
  • These objectives are more like instructional steps, and do not seem to be statements of what students will be able to do.
• Instructional Sequence
  • I cannot picture what is going on during your 55 minute activity. Is this a lecture? If so, state that. You should include your notes.
  • The description in your lesson plan is not sufficient for me to know how you will support students' completing your worksheets. Without thinking through your support strategies, you can't expect students to use your materials effectively.
  • Please add citations to your overheads so that you do not model improper use of images, etc.
• Conclusion - None included.
• Assessment - None included.

L07 - Convection Demo

• Nice lesson. Better writeup than previous one.
• Overview - Good.
• Objectives
  • Convert these to bullets. Nice range of difficulty.
• Instructional Sequence
  • What will you do when they are answering the first two questions individually?
  • How do you see the "whole class as a group" working? Are you the moderator/recorder?
  • Do you still have the smartboard? Will you show them the animations so that they can connect them with convection?
• Conclusion
  • Nice that you come back to original question.
• Assessment
  • Do you have a rubric/key for scoring the homework?
• Rationale - Good.

L08 - Magnetic Fields

• Overview - Missing
• Objectives - Too procedural. Do not indicate what students will be able to do, e.g. will students be able to explain why the earth has magnetic poles? Will they be able to apply this model to explain what scientists are curious about in terms of magnetic pole shifts?
• Instructional Sequence
  • This is very brief. You should include the questions you will ask and how you will manage their exploration of the iron filings.
  • Nice opening with an engaging question. You should ask this carefully, for example: "Everyone knows we can use compasses because the earth is a magnet. Did you ever wonder why the earth is a magnet? Today we'll see how geologists answer that question based on what we already know about plate tectonics."
  • As you already probably have realized, teachers can help students be interested in lesson by framing the lesson with a question that seems interesting, answerable, and worth answering.
  • How will you help them connect their magnet experiences with the earth's magnetic field?
• Conclusion
  • Why not bring them together for a review of the main ideas of the day?
• Assessment
• Rationale - Good

L09 - Webquest

• Overview - None
• Objectives - Procedures; Please revise to indicate what students will be able to do.
• Instructional Sequence
  • Good activity.
  • You should include reminders for your guidelines for working in library and working at computers.
  • Indicate that you will be walking around students using computers to answer questions and monitor activity
  • Need to signup for library/computers in advance?
• Conclusion
  • Twenty minutes to handout study guide?
  • What about revisiting goal of webquest. Did they find what they were looking for?
• Assessment
• Rationale - none